KYLE — Google Fiber is nearing its installation date as representative John Cortez shared that it has plans to begin at the end of summer at the June 3 Kyle City Council meeting.
According to Mike Trimble, Transportation and Public Works director, city staff has been working with Google Fiber on the construction and implementation approach for the past several months, following its initial agreement in September 2024.
“We thought it’d be a good idea to just check back in and also to start to talk in a little bit more specifics about the actual construction process, so that folks know what to expect and so, if they have any questions or concerns, they’ll know whose neck to grab,” said Cortez
Recounting the mission, Cortez noted that Google Fiber stands out amongst others, as it strives to help communities to get access to internet that’s fast, reliable and fairly priced:
• One gigabyte a month for $70
• Two gigabytes a month for $100
• Five gigabytes a month for $125
• Eight gigabytes a month for $150
The latter two of the four are new options, said Cortez.
At the beginning of June, he continued, Google Fiber submitted its first permit for the start of construction.
“Our hope is that later this summer, we have our first permits for construction approved and then, shortly thereafter, we will start construction towards the end of the summer,” said Cortez. “As we build out our network, we will turn parts of it on and open it up for signups for people to be connected to our network. We intend to start that in spring of 2026 and move quickly that entire time and hopefully be fully built out within a matter of a couple of years.”
Cortez shared that the project has a goal of being as clean, fast and minimally invasive as possible during its construction process.
“If we come through and we tear everything up and make a lot of folks unhappy, they’re going to be a lot less [incentivized] to sign up for our service,” he said.
The way they achieve this is by adopting particular construction methods, such as directional drilling/boring and micro trenching. Traditionally, they would also use aerial, which attaches equipment to existing utility poles, but this is not permitted in the city.
“There [is a] tremendous amount of benefits and very minimal impact on residents’ property, very minimal impact on the city’s infrastructure, very minimal conflicts with other underground utilities, like water and gas, because we stay shallow and it allows us to move very quickly and clearly through neighborhoods,” he said.
Additionally, Google Fiber is planning on working with neighborhood associations to discuss the construction at meetings, along with placing informational signs in both English and Spanish on doorknobs that have a construction experience hotline on it that is maintained 24 hours a day, according to Cortez.
Residents will begin to notice spray paint along the road when Google Fiber is about to start construction, as it identifies where the running line is going to be. There will also be small flags placed approximately 48 hours before.
Small boxes, called drop boxes, will be placed underground between residential houses to make the connection to the network if they were to sign up.
“We want to make sure that through this process, all questions and issues are addressed, but if for some reason they’re not addressed to the satisfaction, we do have local team members here on the ground that will serve as escalation points,” Cortez said. “That’s our commitment, to make sure that those problems that were experienced in some of the previous fiber deployments in the city are not experienced with our deployment.”
The first area of the city to begin construction is likely the southeast portion of the city, where they have a “fiber hut” located, and continue to move north, then the west side of the highway.
Mayor Travis Mitchell noted that several residents that are out of the city, for example, Six Creeks, have asked whether they will be included in the agreement, to which Cortez responded that separate agreements could be made with the respective neighborhoods or homeowners associations to deliver service.
“Time Warner was the only option back in the day and then, later on, we got the satellites, but honestly, it’s really exciting now to have options. So, thank you for coming to Kyle,” concluded council member Robert Rizo.
Kyle City Council will meet next June 17.
